An estimate of the number of tropical tree species.
J W Ferry SlikVíctor Arroyo-RodríguezShin-Ichiro AibaPatricia Alvarez-LoayzaLuciana F AlvesPeter AshtonPatricia BalvaneraMeredith L BastianPeter J BellinghamEduardo van den BergLuis BernacciPolyanna da Conceição BispoLilian BlancKatrin Böhning-GaesePascal BoeckxFrans BongersBrad BoyleMatt BradfordFrancis Q BrearleyMireille Breuer-Ndoundou HockembaSarayudh BunyavejchewinDarley Calderado Leal MatosMiguel Castillo-SantiagoEduardo L M CatharinoShauna-Lee ChaiYukai ChenRobert K ColwellRobin L ChazdonChazdon L RobinConnie ClarkDavid B ClarkDeborah A ClarkHeike CulmseeKipiro DamasHandanakere S DattarajaGilles DaubyPriya DavidarSaara J DeWaltJean-Louis DoucetAlvaro DuqueGiselda DuriganKarl A O EichhornPedro V EisenlohrEduardo ElerCorneille EwangoNina FarwigKenneth J FeeleyLeandro FerreiraRichard FieldAry T de Oliveira FilhoChristine FletcherOlle ForshedGeraldo FrancoGabriella FredrikssonThomas GillespieJean-François GilletGiriraj AmarnathDaniel M GriffithJames GroganNimal GunatillekeDavid HarrisRhett HarrisonAndy HectorJürgen HomeierNobuo ImaiAkira ItohPatrick A JansenCarlos A JolyBernardus H J de JongKuswata KartawinataElizabeth KearsleyDaniel L KellyDavid KenfackMichael KesslerKanehiro KitayamaRobert KooymanEileen LarneyYves LaumonierSusan LauranceWilliam F LauranceMichael J LawesIeda Leao do AmaralSusan G LetcherJeremy LindsellXinghui LuAsyraf MansorAntti MarjokorpiEmanuel H MartinHenrik MeilbyFelipe P L MeloDaniel J MetcalfeVincent P MedjibeJean Paul MetzgerJerome MilletD MohandassJuan C MonteroMárcio de Morisson ValerianoBadru MugerwaHidetoshi NagamasuReuben NilusSusana Ochoa-Gaonanull OnrizalNavendu PagePia ParolinMarc ParrenNarayanaswamy ParthasarathyEkananda PaudelAndrea PermanaMaria T F PiedadeNigel C A PitmanLourens PoorterAxel D PoulsenJohn PoulsenJennifer PowersRama C PrasadJean-Philippe PuyravaudJean-Claude RazafimahaimodisonJan ReitsmaJoão Roberto Dos SantosWilson Roberto SpironelloHugo Romero-SaltosFrancesco RoveroAndes Hamuraby RozakKalle RuokolainenErvan RutishauserFelipe SaiterPhilippe SanerBraulio A SantosFernanda SantosSwapan K SarkerManichanh SatdichanhChristine B SchmittJochen SchöngartMark SchulzeMarcio S SuganumaDouglas SheilEduardo da Silva PinheiroPlinio SistTariq StevartRaman SukumarI-Fang SunTerry SunderlandTerry SunderandH S SureshEizi SuzukiMarcelo TabarelliJangwei TangNatália TarghettaIda TheiladeDuncan W ThomasPeguy TchoutoJohanna HurtadoRenato ValenciaJohan L C H van ValkenburgTran Van DoRodolfo VasquezHans VerbeeckVictor AdekunleSimone A VieiraCampbell O WebbTimothy WhitfeldSerge A WichJohn WilliamsFlorian WittmannHannsjoerg WöllXiaobo YangC Yves Adou YaoSandra L YapTsuyoshi YonedaRakan A ZahawiRahmad ZakariaRunguo ZangRafael L de AssisBruno Garcia LuizeEduardo M VenticinquePublished in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2015)
The high species richness of tropical forests has long been recognized, yet there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the actual number of tropical tree species. Using a pantropical tree inventory database from closed canopy forests, consisting of 657,630 trees belonging to 11,371 species, we use a fitted value of Fisher's alpha and an approximate pantropical stem total to estimate the minimum number of tropical forest tree species to fall between ∼ 40,000 and ∼ 53,000, i.e., at the high end of previous estimates. Contrary to common assumption, the Indo-Pacific region was found to be as species-rich as the Neotropics, with both regions having a minimum of ∼ 19,000-25,000 tree species. Continental Africa is relatively depauperate with a minimum of ∼ 4,500-6,000 tree species. Very few species are shared among the African, American, and the Indo-Pacific regions. We provide a methodological framework for estimating species richness in trees that may help refine species richness estimates of tree-dependent taxa.